Sruti Shiva
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Physiology
Mitochondria are the cell's power plants, and when they falter, problems can spread well beyond a single tissue. This research studies mitochondria in blood cells, especially platelets, the small cells that help blood clot.
- Fields
Physiology
Pharmacology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
mitochondria
bioenergetics
platelets
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Determine how increased mitofusin-1 (MFN1) in platelet mitochondria activates the NLRP3 inflammasome, an inflammation switch, using PAH patient platelets, platelet-specific knockout mice and lipidomics.
- Define how platelet-driven thrombo-inflammation, including interleukin-1β and p-selectin, activates the oxidant-producing enzyme NOX1 and proliferation in lung endothelial cells, using co-cultures and EC-specific NOX1 knockout mice.
- Test whether VX-765, a drug that blocks the inflammasome enzyme caspase-1, lessens pulmonary arterial hypertension in rodent models.
- Test whether mitochondrial function in platelets and blood immune cells, measured by respirometry and Seahorse assays, reflects skeletal muscle mass and function in adults over 70 in the SOMMA study.
- Determine whether blood cell bioenergetics are linked to 400-meter walk performance and predict mobility decline over three years in older adults.
More about the research
Blood cells are easy to sample, and their energy metabolism may both drive disease and reveal the health of the whole body. One project asks how faulty platelet metabolism ignites blood-vessel damage in a deadly lung disease. The other asks whether energy measurements from blood cells can track and predict loss of mobility in older adults.
Why it matters
Pulmonary arterial hypertension has no cure. Showing how platelets inflame and injure lung blood vessels could point to platelet-targeted therapies, including caspase-1 blockers such as VX-765. For older adults, a simple blood test of mitochondrial function could stand in for muscle biopsies and flag people at risk of losing mobility, which affects quality of life and health care costs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yuanjun Shen
Binghamton University, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Examine how Vps34, an enzyme that drives smooth muscle overgrowth, is activated in PAH lung arteries through Akt-dependent loss of phosphorylation at Ser164, including candidate phosphatases identified by computer analysis.
Roberto Machado
University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD·Medicine & Clinical Research
Define how NAMPT, the enzyme that makes the metabolic signaling molecule NAD, controls metabolic reprogramming in pulmonary artery endothelial cells during the pulmonary hypertension response.
Julia Boster
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Measure mitochondrial respiration, reactive oxygen species production and oxidative stress in abdominal muscle from children with chronic cholestasis, using Oroboros O2k respirometry, and relate them to sarcopenia.
The school
University of Pittsburgh: 83 labs on PI Pages, $1.5B a year on research, 403 research doctorates a year.
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